Landfill fire in north ‘may go on for weeks’

The fire at the landfill site near the Kyrenia village of Koutsoventis may continue to burn for weeks, bicommunal technical committee on the environment co-chairman Michalis Loizides said on Tuesday, while Turkish Cypriot Nicosia mayor Mehmet Harmanci warned that it may damage the island’s tourism industry. “We have a fire which is ongoing. Unfortunately, waste fires are not just about what you see on the top which is burning. It is good that this is a surface fire, that it is not deep in the landfill, but again, its management cannot be done within a few hours. It takes a few days, maybe even weeks, to contain it and reach a point where smoke emissions will stop,” Loizides told the Cyprus News Agency. The Koutsoventis site’s construction was paid for by European Union funds in 2013 and Loizides said as such the EU “could intervene and support structural improvements so that there is no possibility of us encountering such situations again”. He said that the EU may “say that the protocols are not being respected” and “demand from the Turkish Cypriot side a new phase of planning and remediation of the problem”. He then called for the creation of an “early warning system for residents”, so that “in such situations, they can monitor the concentration of specific toxic, dangerous gases from two or three instruments”. He went on to say that should the concentration of toxic gases be sufficiently high, “evacuations of areas should be carried out”, and that in the case of the fire at Koutsoventis, “this should perhaps be done on the first day of the fire … in areas within two or three kilometres of the landfill site”. The fire, clearly visible from many areas of Nicosia, broke out on Sunday. ‘The stronger the odour, the more we move indoors’ He said that the civil defence should “create some better structures to inform residents” of developments in such cases. Asked what he would do to protect himself in such cases, he said that “in case of a strong odour, I would prefer to stay indoors with my family”, before adding that he also owns an air purifier. “The stronger the odour, the more we move indoors,” he said. He did point out that in general, the wind in Cyprus blows towards the northeast, meaning that the smoke from the fire is not being blown towards the island’s major population centres, including Nicosia, which is located just 10 kilometres to the south of the landfill site. Meanwhile, Harmanci told television channel Ada TV that the Turkish Cypriot authorities “have long failed to take action” regarding the Koutsoventis landfill site, saying that “the issue only comes to the forefront after incidents like fires”. “When push comes to shove, fires like this break out. It becomes an issue, it is discussed for three or four days, then it is forgotten,” he said. ‘With what do we greet arriving passengers? With the smell of rubbish’ He also said the fire is harming Cyprus’ tourism industry, and pointed out that it is visible from the north’s Tymbou (Ercan) airport. “With what do we greet arriving passengers? With the smell of rubbish. We are poisoning people. We claim to be a ‘paradise island’, and then these environmental problems negatively impact the country’s image,” he said. He went on to say that were the site to be operated to its full capacity it would have “significant operating costs”, before saying that tenders put out for the site’s operation did not sufficiently cover the site’s needs. “If you tender a 100-lira operation for 20 liras, you will only get a 20-lira result,” he said, pointing out that the landfill “began to fill up much faster than expected”. He said he had put forward a suggestion to the Turkish Cypriot municipalities’ union that the municipalities take control of the site. “The municipalities are ready to cover the necessary costs. Whatever the cost, we will pay it,” he said, before pointing out that should the necessary infrastructure be purchased and implemented, it may even be possible to use the site to generate electricity.